Statikk responds to PBE Shaco Nerfs

As you may have heard, a few Shaco nerfs were uncovered during yesterday's PBE update. While the nerfs weren't applied to the game client, a peek ( read as datamining ) into the air client gave us the information that Riot intended to removed the passive slow on Shaco's E and reduce the range on his deceive by about 100 units.

Statikk has responded to these PBE changes by explaining the process by which League is balance, offering up an explanation behind the Shaco nerfs, and revealing that Riot only intends to hit the numbers on E's passive slow rather than removing it

Continue reading for more information regarding the tentative Shaco nerfs and how to approach PBE changes in general.

Here is Statikk's full response on the tentative PBE nerfs for Shaco:

"Like to just chime in to help give some insight on the topic. 

Firstly, League of Legends is an iterative process. We are constantly testing different implementations, getting feedback, analyzing the results, and re-continuing the cycle. 

This is never more apparent and true with changes that go to the PBE. Anything that shows up on there: #1 may be false or incomplete (due to faulty data mining) and #2 is very much subject to change. As I always say, I would never trust unofficial sources to be anywhere near 100% accurate to our actual patch. For these reasons, the PBE and what eventually goes to Live are very rarely the same. 

As far as actually addressing Shaco, I think it's undeniable that the Season 3 changes to the jungle (namely Boxes being an effective way of mitigating damage taken) have made him more effective. One of the largest issues we've always had with Shaco's design is his lack of counterplay in early game situations. Even at the very early points in the game, Shaco has an unrivaled tool set to gank with (a blink, stealth, and multiple forms of CC on top of the typical Red Lizard buff). When Shaco gets ahead, there is very little counterplay his victim has other than to hope Flash is up and they are near a turret (in fact when gank victims turn to attempt to retreat without a blink or dash, they are actually putting themselves at a further disadvantage due to Backstab). 

Our goals with these changes are simply to reduce his early gank effectiveness. Obviously the first iteration (the one you guys saw on PBE) where we completely ripped his passive slow was a bit extreme. Even before the Shaco outcry posts had begun, the internal version of the nerf was already changed to be a reduction to Two-Shiv Poison's slow at early ranks (still scales up to 30% at rank 5). As far as the Deceive range nerf goes, our team is pretty confident that this is reasonable as it makes his Deceive range equal to Flash which means players playing against Deceive now only have to worry about the addition of stealth since any jump Shaco can now do, any champion could do the same by using Flash offensively. To be clear, these changes are in no way aimed at balancing the viability of Shaco at a tournament level, they are more aimed at a philosophical level of design addressing how players should be able to respond to playing against Shaco.

Anyway, I'm always glad you guys are constantly passionate about the changes that we're making, it gives us feedback and keeps us in check...but the majority of the PBE overreaction feels unneeded and melodramatic. I much prefer threads like this which have a much more open-minded view and are looking for insight into why a decision is being made and perhaps offer alternative suggestions, solutions, or counterpoints as to why this may or may not be a good decision."